First of all, I want to say hello to everyone. This is a really robust community and I've lurked for a few weeks and figured I'd join.

Frankly, I'm writing this post to express my frustration and to make sure I'm reading a rule correctly.

The Setting:

*I'm playing my solo Spirit/Tactics deck (Eowyn, Legolas, Gimli)

*I'm playing Journey Along the Anduin

Let me start by saying I'd played against the Hill Troll using "stock" decks from the core game and never beaten him in probably 3-4 tries. So then I tried a Spirit/Lore deck and got CRUSHED by the Troll 2-3 times.

For the first time this morning, I tried my Spirit/Tactics deck. And guess what? I freakin' CRUSHED the troll. Easily. Here's how:

1) I got the Dwarven Hammer - which pushed Gimli's attack to 4

2) I used Blade Mastery to push Legolas' attack to 4 for this phase

3) I used Feint to make the Troll skip his attack

So I attacked the troll with impunity (also using a Gondorian Spearman) and did 6 points of damage to him. The very next round, I used the Spearman as a Meatshield sacrifice against the Troll, and then Gimli/Legolas finished him.

So I was feeling REALLY good.

And then the KILLER. I drew back-to-back "The Brown Lands" location cards! These guys have a threat of 5 each!! So all of a sudden, I had a 10 threat to deal with in the staging area (and unfortunately I already had an active location so I couldn't travel to The Brown Lands.

I was hemmorhaging Threat Points each round at this point. I temporarily used Galadrim's Greeting and Gandalf to reduce it by 6 and 5, but that only bought me another 2-3 turns.

I literally had NO WAY in my deck to deal with the Threat of 10 in the staging area. And I had no way to travel there.

Anyway - What started off as so exciting (crushing the troll in my first attempt with my new deck) ended in frusrating disaster.

How could I have avoided this?

Thats the nature of the game! Sometimes it just cant be avoided!

Im no pro player, just make fun themed decks and play with friends. We were struggling beating Hunt for Gollum (we make decks to deal with the whole cycle) and thought we had finally beaten it.... until back to back cards raised our threat by 10 each and put us out of the game! Time to dust off and start again!

LOTR can be a frustrating game at times, but that unpredictability is also what makes it such a fun game! The troll at the beggining of that quest us a real pig, Good Luck beating him and the rest of the quest!

there is one card that would have won you this game- NORTHERN TRACKER places 1 progress on each location in the staging area after comitting to a quest- both would be discarded and problem solved

rich

drengi - thanks. Good advice! I actually really like that random, cruel aspect to the game. When I typed the post, I was still fresh off the frustration of that game. But I wouldn't have it any other way.

richsabre - firstly, I have enjoyed reading many of your posts on solo play. I figure about 2/3 of my games will be solo, so I appreciate those posts.

And secondly: AAARRRGGHHH!!! The only ally that didn't get put in my Spirit/Tactics deck was... drum roll... Northern Tracker! Since I only had Eowyn from spirit, I didn't want a 4-point ally that would take Eowyn 4 turns to save up enough resource to put into play.

I appreciate the advice - and 2 copies of Northern Tracker are now in my deck!

thank you

yes tracker is one of those must have cards in my opinion, he really shines in the mirkwood cycle, not so much in the current one as the designers have figured how to make him useless!

gvaughn1 said:

And that is exactly how deck building works. After a time you know which encounter cards are KILLERS, and then you have to think about a way to defeat them. Most players think that JdtA is about defeating that troll. It isn't. It's about finding your way down the Anduin after you defeated the troll.

There are some cards in the core set from other spheres that can also help you:

Snowbourn Scout (places one progress token on a location)

Secret Paths (cancels the threat of a location in the staging area)

You're right Rich, Tracker is hands down one of the most solid cards, though I don't play him in my current solo Spirit/Lore deck.